Hastert to Edgar: Are you in?

The House speaker (right) wants the former governor to make a decision now on running in 2006

August 26, 2005|By Rick Pearson, Tribune political reporter.

DENVER — Echoing a growing theme among Republicans eager to bring the fight to Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said Thursday that former Gov. Jim Edgar should decide quickly whether to run again for the office he held for eight years.

"My view on Edgar is, if he's going to run, he ought to declare and run because right now he's holding a lot of people at bay who want to be participants and he's drying up money that candidates need," Hastert, the nominal leader of Illinois' Republican Party, told the Tribune in the midst of a fundraising tour for GOP congressional candidates.

"Edgar is a very viable candidate, but if he's serious about this, he ought to just make a decision because if he doesn't, he holds up all of the other candidates and the money," Hastert said. "He needs to give people an honest shot if he's not going to run, so he needs to make a decision very soon."

The comments by Hastert reflect a growing frustration by some of the state's leading Republicans that Edgar's decision-making process has frozen the GOP's efforts to move forward in their campaign to regain a governor's office that Republicans held for 26 consecutive years until Blagojevich's election in 2002.

At the same time, Hastert, a Plano Republican who has spent the last seven years of his 19-year congressional career as House speaker, said it was too early to decide on whether he would make an endorsement in the GOP primary race for governor.

More than a half-dozen people, including Edgar, have announced their candidacy or are considering a bid for the office.

Edgar has set no formal timetable for announcing his decision on whether to re-enter politics.But some Republicans, including several candidates for governor, have said Edgar should make a decision soon so that it doesn't sap attention and money away from them if he opts not to run.

Edgar told the Tribune it was Hastert's "right to say what he thinks," but that when it comes to making a decision, "I'm just not there yet. The party leaders haven't come to me, but if they did today, I'd say, `I'm not ready yet.'"

The former governor said it was human nature for people to want to know his plans quickly, but he maintained that he would make his decision in plenty of time for the party to react.

"I've been through this. I think I'm the only guy who's been through this," Edgar said. "There's a lot of time."

Edgar also said he believed that if he chose not to run, party leaders would likely "want to sit back" and see what emerges from the fluid Republican field before making any endorsements or funding decisions.

Hastert has had previous political relationships with several of the other contenders, including dairy owner and investment manager Jim Oberweis, state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) and state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.

In Oberweis' unsuccessful 2002 primary run for the Senate, he received Hastert's endorsement. But two years later, when Oberweis made another Senate bid, Hastert declined to make an endorsement in the contest amid concerns from the White House about Oberweis' strident opposition to President Bush's proposal to deal with illegal immigrants.

Hastert also has been a supporter of Rauschenberger, another unsuccessful candidate in last year's GOP Senate primary. Hastert channeled campaign money to Rauschenberger earlier this decade for him to disburse to Republican candidates for the state Senate and indicated the then-GOP leadership did not appear to be very aggressive in backing legislative candidates.

Hastert also has known and supported Topinka for years, owing to the days when they served together in the Illinois legislature.

While Hastert said Edgar would be a formidable candidate, he also said he had not spoken to the former Republican governor. Edgar met informally with close advisers last weekend in Illinois and has been making calls to various Republicans to discuss a potential comeback bid.

Hastert referred to Edgar as "the media darling for one reason or another" and indicated the speculation on the former governor's future has blocked the other candidates from being able to deliver their message to potential March 2006 primary voters.

"Until he's either in the race or out of the race, he's going to get all of the attention," the House speaker said.

Hastert said voters need to get more familiar with the field and need to see which contenders are financially viable to take on Blagojevich.

"You can't win the governorship without raising money," Hastert said, noting Blagojevich's $14.4 million campaign bank account at the end of June. "You also have to have some attraction on the issues. People have to hear them (on the stump) ... and then the party, the precinct committeemen and others have some decisions to make."